A Culturally Mixed Family Pulling Up Roots And Finding A Home In Honduras

Sunday, July 16, 2006

Last Day in La Ceiba- Day 3

7-16-06 Sunday 4:45 pmWe ended the last night at a bar next door to the restaurant we ate. The rain started what seemed like from nowhere. I could see lightening in the distance and shortly after the rain came. Pouring. The thing that was different about the rain here is that I couldn't smell it and after the humidity raises a bit. That's another thing that was different. In MN if it rains, it usually relieves the humidity in the air.

We got up again at dawn and had breakfast at the hotel. I love the oatmeal here in honduras. Yummm!We took a taxi to this place called Pico Bonito. We had a tour of the forest. It was interesting and beautiful to see. Our guide pointed out so many cool creatures and things. A honduran naturalist. Then we went back and had a very good lunch overlooking the lodge's grounds. I ate ice and water not from a bottle here. Hope I don't get sick. This is a luxury hotel that has 95% American clients so I figured it was probably safe. They assured me it would be okay. I drive Papa nuts with all this water worrying.

After lunch it was back to a swimming hole (sans the tour guide) at the river on the trail. We didn't bother with suits. We thought it would be safe since there were very few people at the lodge on a Sunday afternoon and our guide told us we were the only booked tour that day.You bet it felt refreshing after a sweaty hike through a humid rainforest. Then we heard people coming and needed to get dressed in a hurry. Ha! We laughed our tails off as we scrambled to get dressed. The people coming were great sports. They waited for us to get dressed to come down and we had a good laugh as we had to pass them on the trail. They were young locals coming to have a picnic at the river.We had asked the taxi to pick us up at 1pm to bring us back to the hotel. Turns out this guy totally ripped us off by overcharging. So we were no-shows when he arrived to pick us up. He was pretty pissed and left us a note at the hotel that he wanted money for the gas to come get us. I guess I get why he is trying to rip us off, but come on. We talked to the locals at the lodge and asked about the price of a taxi and they all agreed that we had been way overcharged. So we walked down the long rocky road to the highway to catch a bus. We were in search of a ripe cocoa fruit from one of the dozens of trees lining the road. I wanted to see what it looked and tasted like.We got to the bottom of the mountain/hill and waited for a bus that comes by. This worked out great and was WAY more cheap. This taxi had charged us 250 lps, which is like $13. The bus back cost us $.50 to the bus station where we got a taxi to the hotel for 30lps ($1.50US). Imagine that! At the most the taxi should have charged was 100-120lps ($5-$7). He really ripped us off. I know $13 bucks seems trivial, but we obviously are watching our money closely and it is the principle. We leave back to San Pedro Sula in the morning.My legs are very sore from the hike. Hungry now for dinner too.